The ride began in the middle of summer, in Quiberon (Morbihan). Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer founded MM Process, an engineering firm specializing in racing boats, François Chesnot is project manager at the Blam workshop, design expert. The two thirty-somethings give courses together at the National School of Architecture in Nantes. Secretly, Blam has just been hired to design the Olympic cauldron which will amaze the French a year later. The agency is considering refusing another project, a horse that we would like to gallop on the Seine, but, this July 8, 2023, we still ask Madeg Ciret-Le Cosquer if he would be capable of building a float moving more than ‘a ton at high speed. Chiche, replies the engineer, a confidentiality contract is signed two days later, a feasibility study launched.
August 29, 2023, Madeg is received with Morgane Suquart, his associate and companion, by the Paris 2024 teams. Thierry Reboul, the event director, refuses a catamaran – “the pedal boat is not going to do it!” – and the project of an underwater plane, too expensive. You need a discreet boat, no more than 150 millimeters out of the water, dictates the specifications, to give the impression of galloping. Madeg and Morgane imagine a stealthy trimaran. Banco, at the end of January 2024, the cavalcade accelerates. Three months of construction, recruitment of twenty service providers, work sixteen hours a day, just a sleep break from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
June 27, the boat anchors in the bay of Quiberon, successful bet, Morgane, European champion of Moth, a foil dinghy, takes over as rider. One, two, three, then fourth convincing test in the presence of Paris 2024, on July 2, this time with the costumes and the horse designed by Blam. Go to Paris to negotiate authorization to sail. The Ile-de-France prefecture is suspicious about security, Madeg and Morgane manage to convince during a rehearsal near the Mirabeau bridge on July 21.
July 26, 10:22 p.m., Zeus, his code name, sets off for six kilometers down the Seine. Morgane holds the reins, Madeg speaks to her on the earpiece of a boat following her. “Hurras” and “bravos” spring from the bays, the rider, well trained, masters the trajectories of her silver steed. A timeless walk in mondovision, legendary images, a pang in the heart when the cameras move away, and this exultation from Madeg in his ear: “We did it”.